Jerry Bryson was already shaving in the seventh grade. He would hop off the school bus in the afternoon with a five o’clock shadow.
School chums in Darrington said he was a big kid, but not a bully. His father, a farmer, trapper and mountain man, taught his son survival skills. Bryson learned how to hunt, fish, farm and find his way through the mountains.
His skills kept him alive in Vietnam.
Rich Marks served with Bryson in Vietnam. They were wounded on the same day and sent by helicopter to a hospital outside of Dong Ha.
“While we were both on the table being worked on in the operating room, enemy fire continued to rain down on the hospital bunker,” Marks said. “Everybody evacuated the operating room, and Jerry and I crawled to a more secure area. By the time we got there the fire would stop and they would carry us back to the operating room. It happened twice and the third time we looked at each other and said it was too much work crawling that far without any help so we stayed on the tables until the bombardment ended.”
He was a good and brave soldier, Marks said.
Jerry Wesley Bryson, 59, died suddenly July 26 at his Arlington home. He was born to Fredrick and Hazel Bryson, Dec. 4, 1947, in Everett. He graduated from Darrington High School in 1966 and went into the U.S. Army.
Bryson received the Air Medal for Meritorious Achievement, the Purple Heart, the Army Commendation Medal for Heroism and a Bronze Star. After the war, he went to work as a logger, worked in a sawmill and then was employed by for the state Department of Transportation until his death.
Bryson was a member of the Veterans of Foreign Wars, American Legion, Disabled American Veterans and the Vietnam Veterans of America.
Preceding him in death was his sister, Monteen Marie Bryson and brother, George Merritt Bryson.
He is survived by Connie A. Bryson, who he was married to for 37 years; sons and daughter-in-laws, Frederick Karl and Megan Bryson and Eric Johnathan and Asheley Bryson; sisters, Ramona Smith, Jeannette and Gerald Green, Lavinia Bryson and Jim Hale, Cindy and Jeff Strole, and NoraLee and Rob Keller; special uncle, Shirlie Bryson; grandchildren Morgan and Korbin Bryson.
His son, Eric Bryson, said his father passed along skills taught to him by his grandfather.
“It was important for him to help us realize that to achieve greatness, it takes hard work and dedication,” Eric Bryson said. “I feel that we have taken that with us in the things we have chosen to do in our lives.”
As a kid, he remembers his parents having friends over to play cards, have drinks, cook breakfast late at night, but most of all having fun.
“My favorite memories are probably in the last chapter of his life, when he was a Grandpa (Papa). I’m so happy he had the opportunity to be carefree with Morgan. It was almost as if he felt like a kid himself.”
His daughter-in-law, Asheley Bryson, said Jerry Bryson told her bits and pieces about the war, and shared other skills.
“He taught me to garden, use a cherry pitter, cook a pot roast, and most recently, not to let the ghosts of our past inhibit us from giving or rather showing love to those around us,” Asheley Bryson said. “I will continue to love and to try to understand him by living in his home, exploring his mountains, catching his fish, picking his vegetables and loving his son.”
Bryson had a way of kidding and teasing that made it nearly impossible to get mad at him, said co-worker Jim Parrish. Everyone knew it was his way of telling you he liked you and was your friend, he added.
Jerry Bryson didn’t put on airs, said Judy O’Connor. He was down to earth, never asked for help and always did for himself and his family. His interests included farming, hunting, fishing, playing with his grandchildren and reading.
“Jerry was a man of his word,” Connie Bryson said. She was married to Bryson for 37 years. “He was meticulous, a good father and husband, was very gentle and liked to play jokes on everyone.”
His high school girlfriend, Judy Lexvold, said Jerry Bryson taught her how to spear frogs, jig for salmon, hike and deliver calves.
“Everybody loved Jerry,” Lexvold said. “He had a quiet spirit, wasn’t loud and boisterous, yet he was really fun loving.”
Adventure and spunk were part of his free spirit.
“He was just a blue-jeans kind of guy. Kind and caring, nothing fake or put on when it came to Jerry.”
Childhood buddy Ron White said when they were kids, Jerry Bryson convinced him that the electric fence running between his house and White’s would shock White if he just lightly touched it.
“But if I grabbed it really tight and didn’t let go, the electricity wouldn’t hurt,” White said. “Needless to say, I was mad at him for a few days until the burn on my hand healed.”
His friend was the best hunter and fisherman White ever knew.
“We spent countless days in the mountains and on the Stillaguamish River, which ran right by our farms, catching so many salmon that we couldn’t carry them all home,” he said. “In the early ’60s, there were so many salmon in the river that we never used a lure. Jerry taught me how to just throw a treble hook out into the school of salmon and give a quick jerk to catch them.”
White said Bryson chose to live his adult life on the same farm he was raised on, where he taught his children lifelong lessons about the land.
Kristi O’Harran: 425-339-3451 or oharran@heraldnet.com.
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